500 Days of Autumn
by JackpotGirl
Summary: It's the sequel to "9 Months" and follows Harper's and Spencer Reid's daughter Autumn through stages of her life, 500 days of her life to be accurate. See how she grows up a genius and finds love where she would have never expected it.
1. 30 Days of Insomnia

**Summary: **It's the sequel to "9 Months" and follows Harper's and Spencer Reid's daughter Autumn through stages of her life, 500 days of her life to be accurate. See how she grows up a genius and finds love where she would have never expected it.  
Because isn't it weird to fall in love with someone you've known all your life?

The days will be mixed, meaning: we'll have one chapter like this one below of her life as a child, then maybe one as a teen, then one as a toddler, then one as an adult etc., you get the picture.

I hope hope hope you enjoy :) next chapters will be longer!

Leave a comment!

**(500) Days of Autumn**

**Chapter One**

**(30) Days of Insomnia**

"Your turn", Spencer's voice came muffled from the sheets as Autumns demanding shriek came through the baby monitor and the thin walls of the apartment. Really, they wouldn't even need a baby monitor, Autumn was perfectly loud enough on her own.

"Oh no, baby, I've picked her up last, it's your turn", Harper smirked and let her hand trail over Spencer's back as he lay on his stomach and buried his face in the pillows.

They'd been at home with their daughter for a good week and neither of them had slept properly in days. That moment Spencer was just happy to be on paternity leave so he wouldn't have to get up early to go to work.

"JJ didn't say she would be that bad", he moaned and turned over to look into Harpers sleepy eyes.

"Well, we certainly can't return her, now go, don't let her wait", commanded his fiancée and nudged his shoulder towards the door, "go"

Reluctantly Spencer left the cozy sheets and stood on weakly tired legs in his boxers and a t-shirt facing the door. If anyone had told him a year before, he'd be a Dad soon, he would've laughed and turned away. But now there was no turning away and he didn't want to, but it was still a weird feeling, suddenly having this huge responsibility and this little creature in his life that demanded both all his attention and all his love. She was so precious, though a mess in the nights, during daytime she was the best baby ever, she hardly ever cried, she slept a lot but when the night came their timid, peaceful baby was replaced with an unhappy complaining diaper-wasting monster that didn't grant her parents more than two or three hours of sleep.

On stumbling feet Spencer scuffled towards his old study, which was now Autumns nursery and approached the source of the crying.

With her toothless mouth wide open Autumn cried heartrendingly and didn't stop when her father came into view to pick her up cautiously. Only when he felt her warm body coming to peace on his shoulder, the screaming ceased and Spencer could tell the reason for her discomfort.

"That's a diaper change coming up", he whispered and carried her over to the changing table. Eventually Spencer had become pretty good at changing diapers, though Harper was still faster than him, he did it swiftly enough, without hurting Autumn and to everyones satisfaction and he couldn't say that this didn't make him proud.

When he put a fresh diaper on his now clean baby daughter, he caught the clock on the wall. At four thirty he put her back into her bed and stroked her little face with one finger while she closed her eyes peacefully. No matter how much sleep she took from him, he still loved her beyond words. She was the one reason he didn't crash at Harper's coma, she was the center of his life, he'd begun to think that all his life had led up to this point, that she was the reason, that he'd have her one day, that she would turn it all around. With her, they finally were a proper family and Harper had adjusted to her role as a Mom at the most impeccable speed, if you'd seen her carrying her daughter through the apartment, singing to her, you'd think she'd never been anything else than a mother.

He threw one last look at his daughter before slurping back to bed where he let himself fall beside Harper and cuddled up against her body.

"She alright?", she asked removing some curls from his face.

"Just needed a diaper change", he replied and put his arm around her tiny body to what she responded by nestling herself close to his chest, kissing his neck slightly.

"Well then, let's hope she grands us some sleep", she whispered and he nodded, holding her until both of them were vast asleep.

--

The light of the morning hit their bedroom right before Autumn, too, woke up and this time, Harper went to get her while Spencer prepared breakfast. He made pancakes and watched Harper eat happily while rocking their daughter on her lap.

"I've been thinking about going to the BAU today", he said after finishing his own breakfast, "Garcia said they'll be returning from a case at around one pm"

"Yes, I'd love to", Harper answered and the smiled down at Autumn, "You wanna go see your friends?"

After finishing the dishes and watching a bit of news while Harper read to Autumn, they put her in the push chair and took Harper's car to Quantico where Garcia already waited with a warm and tight hug and hovered immediately over Autumn, saying how amazingly cute she was with her already curling brown hair.

"And she looks so much like you, Harper", Penelope smiled up to her.

"Even more like my brother, she's got this kind of tan already, that's just how my brother looks. I'd thought her to be paler", she shrugged and tugged her arm under Spencer's.

"Oh, look, here they come", Garcia said happily and pointed at the opening doors. They didn't see them yet, standing in the conference room but it wasn't long until Emily spotted them. The rest of the team followed her up the stairs and across the way to where the others waited.

"Reid", Morgan said, coming forth with JJ and Rossi, both smiling at the sight of their guests, "man, you look tired"

"That's because I am", Spencer sighed.

"Is she keeping you up badly?", JJ asked compassionate, keeping her eyes locked on Autumn.

"She's brilliant during daytime, hardly ever cries but as soon as we put her to bed, it's mayhem", Harper said.

"I bet she's afraid of the dark", mused Emily.

"Like her dad", laughed Morgan with JJ joining in.

"It's still seems a bit unreal,doesn't it?", Emily tilted her head and looked at the picture Harper, Spencer and their daughter made, "that our little G-man would turn out our family-man"

"I said it before and I'll say it again, they're the best that could've happened to me", Spencer smirked and pulled Harper yet tighter.

**Next up:** **(10) Days of Confusion**


	2. 10 Days of Confusion Part One

**Author's Note:** This chapter is a three-parter, so each part will be about this length, this is better for me as I don't have so much time right now to really write lengthy but I hope you can appreciate it anyway.

**(500) Days of Autumn**

**Chapter Two **

**(10) Days of Confusion (Part I)**

The soft wind brushed over Autumns olive skin as she held her hand out of the window of their parents Volvo. The car drove at maximum speed down the highway towards Carolina Beach for their summer vacation. It was around the sixth year they were headed there and as much as Autumn felt like she needed to see other cities for a change, she couldn't help being exited to go there again. Especially as Henry was coming, too. Of course he'd always come along, needless to say as his parents owned the house at the beach. They had each year invited her and her parents because her dad, Spencer Reid, who was also Henry's godfather, was a colleague of Henry's mom Jennifer Jereau at the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI and they were long time friends.

So this was the sixth year in a row that they would go on a ten day vacation together, also with her uncle Rossi, who really wasn't her uncle but who was also a family and since his retirement a few years ago, he came over for dinner and birthdays, the same as Aaron, who'd retired a year ago, him and his son Jack were in the car with JJ, Will and Henry.

The rest of her dad's team, Emily, Derek and Penny didn't have vacation time the same week JJ and her dad had, so they'd stayed at Quantico working.

As she closed her eyes while the sun shone warm on her cheek, she thought about her father's job. He was a profiler, a real hero and eventuate she was incredibly proud of him, she sometimes wished that he worked a nine to five job and wouldn't have to go away for days at a time, working a case in some forsaken spot. And then when he came home sometimes you could almost see what he saw, investigating murders and horrors and all that nasty stuff he wouldn't talk to her about. He told her mom, Harper everything, mainly because she always pushed him to, saying that it would eat him up someday and it would get him sick.

Her mom worshiped her father, as long as she lived, she had never once seen her parents have a real argument, both because her mother, being a psychologist and her father being a profiler, they knew each others triggers and knew when to back off but also because they really sincerely loved each other. And you would think their relationship would have suffered more from her dad's job but somehow they made it work. Not only the two of them in their, going into their sixteenth year-marriage, but also their life with a child, they'd raised her to be a responsible, mature seventeen year old girl with a head of her own and the guts to speak her kind wherever she went.

And as her mother had passed the big mouth and clumsiness onto her, her dad had given her her genius. Of course he was still smarter than her, but she had an IQ of 158, an eidetic memory and that, unlike her father for both spoken and read words. But she couldn't read half as fast as her dad, who could actually process 20.000 words per minute. If she was in a good mood, she could make that 3.000 words per minute but most of the time she preferred to take time to think about what she read, imagine it, put it into pictures in her head.

"Honey, there's a truck stop coming, d'you need anything?", her mother asked from the passenger seat, taking her attention away from the view out the window.

"No", she replied and then noticed her dry throat, "well actually, something to drink would be great"

"Good, I'll tell JJ we're gonna catch that exit", her mom nodded and picked up her cell phone to call the others in the car behind them.

When her father pulled the car over to the exit, the mix smell of gasoline and highway heat filled her nostrils, she was glad to get her feet onto solid ground again and walk for a bit. She'd been in the car for four hours, since the last stop. Now she was supposed to stretch her limbs for the last hour of their drive to the ocean side.

Behind her, she heard the LaMontagne-family-ride pull over and stop and turned to see the doors opening. First out was Jack Hotchner, 22 years old and on college vacation to be with his father for the summer. He was a gorgeous sight but he was a bit too serious for Autumns taste. He rarely smiled and although he had a great dark sense of humor, cracking the blackest jokes in the most unfitting situations which made them even more hilarious, she missed a lighter side to him. But she couldn't blame him. He'd lost his mother at age three and basically grew up with his dad away on the job often and although they were close, Autumn could see that he felt a bit abandoned still, though probably more by his mother than by his father.

He was smiling now anyway but that was a natural state for any person near Henry, who jumped out of the car behind him.

Henry LaMontagne made everyone smile, that was just the way things worked with him, he was spontaneous and funny and crazy and...well, there were really too many words to describe him. He was about everything one could be and he was her best friend on earth, she'd known him all her life, they'd grown up together but lately something had changed, they didn't see each other as often and he'd started spending time with...well, let's face it; dubious guys, not exactly gang bangers because they were too smart for that but they got into fights, they drank and Autumn had the slight suspicion that they also sold drugs. She hated it and she hated the way she couldn't talk to him about it. Why was he even that reckless? His mother worked for the government for crying out loud and he had to go around mingling in some funny business? But now, it was all different, now, away from DC he was suddenly the old Henry again, the nice one, humble one, funny one. The one guy you could share all your secrets with and he would never tell a living soul, the reliable, responsible, amazing Henry that she'd come to miss so badly it had hurt.

"What are you looking at, Reid?", he yelled from the other side of the parking lot, catching her focused stare on him, walking towards her.

"I have a first name, Henry", she rolled her eyes and stood like a statue until he had caught up with her and casually put his arm around her shoulder.

"I know, Autumn, but we're cool like that, aren't we", he laughed and then tightened his grip around her neck, making her duck away but didn't release her until he rubbed his fist on her curly head.

"Stop it, stop it Henry", she complained, "please, could you just once act your age?"

"Oh that's exactly what I'm doing", he smirked, "now that I finally _can_ again"

"Henry", Autumn didn't catch the stern look his mother threw at him, so she didn't notice the change in her face before Henry let her go, "behave, kid, or I'll ground you"

"You can't ground me, I'm eighteen", he protested, fully letting go of Autumn.

"We'll see"


	3. 10 Days of Confusion Part Two

**Author's Note: ** Thanks for all the nice comments, I'm so glad you're enjoying this so far!

**(500) Days of Autumn**

**Chapter Three**

**(10) Days of Confusion (Part Two) **

Switching her weight to her upper body, Autumn used the momentum to let herself crush into her fathers back, who stood at the candy-bar-display and almost jumped because the sudden movement of his daughter had startled him. She flung her arms around him from behind and let her head rest on the bones of his spine she could feel through his loose button-shirt. She had missed him a lot lately. He'd been away more often than usual, once Texas, then LA, Oregon, Boston, New York, now they were together again and she couldn't have been more happy. From the corner of her eye she saw Henry and Jack joke around but they, too, she could see that in their eyes, were glad to be with their parents again.

"Did you find something to drink yet?", her father asked, stroking up and down her arms around his stomach.

"Almost", she sighed and squeezed him one last time before letting go and letting her eyes trail through the track stop-store to find a coke or something. Of course she knew that coke wouldn't cease her thirst, au contraire, it would increase it but she couldn't help herself, she was addicted to the sugary soda.

"Why so cuddly?", she heard her dad smirk behind her and it took a second before she registered it as her gaze got stuck on Henry at the other end of the store without her even noticing.

"What?", she turned to find her father, who still didn't look a bit his age but rather thirty-five than forty-five with his boyish, delicate features, "Why I'm cuddly? Dad...I missed you a lot"

Momentarily guilt swept over his face and he pursed his lips thoughtfully, he hated it that he couldn't be with her more often, she knew that but all the same he also loved his job and he needed to do it, like her mother, Autumn knew perfectly well, that her dad wouldn't be happy if he wasn't working as a profiler.

"It's fine, dad, we're here now", she smiled and stepped forward to hug him yet again, "and we have ten days together"

"Group hug", Autumn heard beside her ear and a second later she felt a second set of arms around her tiny body.

"Mom, you're pulling my hair", she laughed but her mother didn't let go, instead she hugged them tighter before releasing them at ones, snatching her fathers arm away.

"Honey, we're going to get our fair share of him, I missed him too, you know", her mom smirked and leaned against her dad but Autumn knew that she did mean it and her dad cringed again, knowing that his two women wanted him around more.

Autumn's mom was forty-four years old but the most beautiful woman Autumn knew, the curly hair that she had passed on to her was fiery red and long and her freckled face glowed whenever her father was near and she was ever so bubbly, ever so happy and able to see everything in a nicer light and as much as her father was often worried about Autumn, about her starting to go out with boys, about her being safe in the city, on the subway and everywhere, her mother always put it in perspective. Generally, their parents worked perfectly together, balancing each other and since she could remember she'd always wanted a family like hers, she wanted a relationship that went just as smoothly as theirs.

"Hey Autumn", turning away from her parents she saw Henry walking towards her, "catch"

Thanks to her well-working reflexes she caught what he'd thrown at her and was glad that her clumsiness hadn't kicked in when she saw what she'd just caught; a bottle of coke.

"Thanks", she said.

"I know what you like, huh?", Henry laughed with his back turned to her and again, for the zillionth time during the last couple weeks her heart made an unpleasant jump, her ears became very hot and she felt like it was harder to breath. She knew all these symptoms, but she had to be mistaken, it was just another trick her weird mind played on her. This was Henry. He was practically her brother. And you didn't feel like this about your brother. So it had to be a mistake, a...a...hallucination. Nothing serious, just some sick joke her brain made to unsettle her. And it was not going to work, she was in perfect control. Though he did seem more thoughtful now.

That's what she thought when she opened the bottle outside and a fountain of coke foam erupted from the neck of the bottle hit her face, her hair and her clothes and she just heard Henry chuckle from a far; he'd shook the bottle before giving it to her.

"You're such an idiot!", she said furiously, wiping the liquid off her face, feeling stupid and humiliated and then, on a whim, took of to a sprint and caught him by surprise, emptying the bottle over his head and while he tried to run away, she held him by the elbow and scratched his skin open.

"Ouch", he called from under his drippy bangs and Autumn let go, "now who should act their age?"

"Shut up", she said with an unproportional rage inside her, why would he be so mean?, "You're just an immature douchebag"

With that she turned on her heal and under the eyes of all her friends and family she stumped to the car and let the door shut loudly.

She sat there for a while and watched her parents talk to JJ and Will in what seemed to be a private conversation and in the rear mirror she saw Henry and Jack, too, get into the car, Jack nodding his head at the younger one.

_Such an idiot_, she thought but wouldn't admit to herself how hurt she really was. Okay it was a joke, a stupid joke, of course, but nothing to be so upset about. It wasn't like he'd never done that before, she should've been smarter.

"You know that he's just looking for a way to get back in contact with you", it was Rossi's velvet bass that spoke to her and when the door clicked she was alone on the backseat with him, knowing that he would profile Henry now and though she usually didn't like her profiler friends profile other friends she didn't mind now.

"But we were never out of contact", she said, "all the way, at least"

"Boys that age are impossible to predict, most of the time they themselves have no idea what they're gonna do next", he said calmingly and put his head on her shoulder, "but be sure that this is nothing personal, if anything, his behavior indicates deeper interest in you, he wants your full attention"

"Well, that's a stupid way to gain it", Autumn replied bitterly and thrust herself back in the seat and with her parents entering the car, her and Rossi's conversation was ended.

"He didn't mean to upset you, he was just-", her father started, now on the passenger seat.

"-he just tried to be funny, I know", she finished his sentence, "It's alright"

The rest of the ride was quiet and Autumn soon took her earphones in an listened to music for the rest of the way, skipping all the songs that reminded her of Henry.

One and an half hour later they arrived at the LaMontagne's house at the beach and with alarmingly little of her anger ceased, Autumn grabbed her bag out of the trunk, giving Henry the silent treatment.

After throwing her suitcase on her bed in the only single-bedroom in the house, she went to the bathroom to wash out her hair and put some new summery clothes on before unpacking and sorting her clothes into the dresser. When she was halfway through, she heard a timid knock on the door.

"What", she barked at the still closed door.

"It's me, Autumn", said Henry, "can I come in"

Stoically, she opened up for him and shot him a freezing look as he stepped in, sinking down on her bed.

"I'm sorry", he said damp, he appeared to have washed his hair in between as well, as they were still drying and a little drop of water rinsed down his forehead.

"You're almost nineteen years old, Henry", Autumn said, wrinkling her forehead and finally sitting down beside him, "I mean, seriously, aren't you getting a bit old for these kinds of things?"

"I just thought it was funny", he said, "I'm really sorry"

"It's okay", Autumn said and badly enough meant it, she couldn't be mad at him for long, "Just don't do this again.

"Okay", he said, his features going up into a smirk, "now that we have that sorted out...Let's go swimming"

"Uh, I don't know...the water's not warm any more", Autumn pursed her lips.

"Oh, come on, _Autumns_, Jack already ditched me because he wants to read, don't you let me down as well", and then he gave her the puppy eyes and there was nothing to conquer these.

"Fine", she finally huffed.

When they returned from the beach, both dripping and cold, they were too brisk to notice the knowing grins of Rossi and Hotch, who watched them hop into the house from the veranda.


	4. 10 Days of Confusion Part Three

**Author's Note: **Heyy, sorry that this update has taken so long but along with me, my muse has decided to take a vacation and along with my caught-upness it's a no-no-combination for story updates, thanks for waiting and I hope you enjoy this little chapter. :)

Love to you all!

**(500) Days Of Autumn**

**Chapter Two**

**(10) Days Of Confusion – Part Three**

The first rays of sunlight crept through the half closed shades and gently brought Autumn back from the ocean of dreams she'd floated through just minutes before. She unusual sultriness already caused a thin layer of sweat to linger on her delicate skin and she felt it pushing her down into the linen, but not in an uncomfortable way, it made her feel dull and heavy but relaxed and comfortably numb. The very second she slowly opened her eyes she realized that she was actually happy and not the kind of happy you get when you have school off early but the perfectly-fine-nothing is wrong-it could stay like this forever-happy.

The last few days at the shore had been so exhausting as they had been fun, they'd been hiking, they did walks on the beach, she, Jack and Henry had snook off to drink beer in a bar and got grounded for half a day, even Jack, who really was too old to get grounded...but looking at his father, who could be mighty frightening if he wanted, even Jack stayed in for a couple of hours.

Though if Autumn had to be honest, despite her nice happy-feeling, deep down inside a nagging fear had pushed itself in between the place in her chest where her heart was and her stomach where it got comfortable and made itself noticed by closing up her throat and causing a raging heartbeat whenever Henry got too close to her.

She ignored it the best way she could but the horrible part was that she, once her heart had started beating faster under his accidental touch, was actually even happier. And the fear inside of her remained the same as it had been before; that she was irrevocably starting to fall in love with her best friend.

It had been most threatening when Henry and her had been going to the beach after dark just because they could as all the adults had been playing Charade in the living room and both of them weren't remotely interested in watching Henry's mother portraying an elephant or Autumns Dad over-complicatedly explaining the jet stream.

So they'd been strolling down the beach, amused about Jack's lame excuse for not coming along (he still needed to catch up on his studies, blah blah blah) and talked about everything and anything. Like numerous times before she practically blasted with relief that he acted perfectly normal again, the glum look on his face that he'd worn so stubbornly in DC had disappeared, at least nearly. Whenever he thought no one was watching he bit his lip and stared off into nothingness and Autumn could only guess where his mind went. He seemed so...sad, troubled. She knew that he wasn't the one to be wimpy about nothing, she wondered if it had to do with his new friends but then again, he'd chosen them and when he rode around the blocks with them he always looked so smug. As shocked as she'd been to see that unknown side of him, the side that ignored her when they passed each other in school and wouldn't even say 'hi', as glad she was to have _her _Henry back, her thoughtful, considerate, funny and easy-going Henry.

The sand tickled under her feet and with the setting sun and soft breeze sent shivers down her spine as her heart thudded with a slight stroke of Henry's hand against hers. She needed to suppress this feeling, it wasn't right.

"What's up, Autumn?", she heard him say and realized that she'd held her breath automatically when their hands had met.

"Nothing", she shook the damp feeling of guilt of and smiled it away, "it's just a beautiful sunset"

"Yeah", he said, his voice trailing off before he pointed to a deserted beach-guard house, "Wanna sit down?"

She nodded, happily at the suggestion because her feet were getting sore from the indulgent sand, she tiptoed over the wooden ramp, up to the box-shaped hut and sat down beside Henry, resting her back against the planks.

A chilly breeze blew over their heads, making Autumns curls hit against the hut and along with her lips, her whole body began to quiver. It was getting cold and she should have brought a jacket.

"Are you cold?", Henry asked playfully and nudged her shoulder with his, a smile brightening up his features in the purplish twilight.

"A little bit", she admitted and tried to silence the voices inside her head that fought for possession of her mind – one saying she should take her feet and run from the awkwardness that she was getting herself in for and the other one telling her to lean in closer to him, hoping he's catch the hint and put his arm around her.

But he didn't, he took his jacket off without hesitation and carefully put it over her shoulders and rubbed them with his hands so she would warm up. Neither of them said a word and he kept his hands on her body and suddenly she felt very hot although her teeth were still chattering.

They sat there for a while and Autumn couldn't recall a time where they hadn't shared a word in such a long moment. The silence was both disturbing and frightening to her, it felt like something had changed and her pending crush on him that she tried so desperately to lie away, felt more present than ever.

It also felt like he was a bit...uneasy, nervous almost...had he picked up on her weird mood or was he like that for another reason?

"You know what?", he suddenly said and then looked at her for a moment, as if considering something before sucking in a wave of breath and with one swift movement, pulled her close to him, closing his arms around her and making her lean against his firm chest, so she finally sat between his legs, "that should make the cold go away better, right?"

_But it doesn't make the really annoying things go away_, she thought with her heart beating unpleasantly heavy against her ribcage. She nodded faintly, still unable to regain the ability to speak.

"I used to laugh at people who said that they like watching sunsets", Henry said with a hint of awkwardness and a nervous giggle swaying along in his voice and she could feel his chest go up and down as he spoke, "but this is really quite pretty"

"You're aware that I will use that against you", Autumn tried desperately to bring back their cat and mouse games, the teasing, the normality to this absurd abnormal situation, "if I tell your too cool for school friends at home that you said that, your street-creds will be gone with the wind"

"Tell them all you want", he smiled wryly instead of being annoyed, rocking her a little, "right now I don't give a damn about anything that's not in a six inches radius around me"

"Which puts me in the 'I do give a damn-area'?", it wasn't supposed to sound so much like a question but she turned to face him either way to see his reaction but the unexpected seriousness painting his features threw her off track.

"Actually you are the center of that area, it revolves around you...it's everywhere around you", he almost whispered, looking past her at the sea.

Autumn wasn't sure if she had heard right, she didn't know what to make of it and she surely had not the slightest idea what to say, so she just giggled dumb, the way you wouldn't think a genius could.

They'd sat there for a while before her Mom called, worried about them and asking them to come home as soon as possible and they did, somewhere on the way finding their speech back and talked about poker and sunglasses for the rest of the way.

Right now, lying in her bed, reliving that very evening she wasn't so happy anymore, knowing him in bed in the room beside her, so close but so so far away, she was just one thing; confused.


End file.
